Bottlenose

Global Challenges | HIV Cases Increasing Among Women, MSM in Rural China,
Study Says
[Oct 03, 2008]

      The number of HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men has
increased eightfold during the past few years in areas of China, according
to a study published recently in the journal Nature,
Reutersreports.
The study also found that the proportion of women in their
reproductive years who are HIV-positive has doubled during the past 10
years. According to researchers, this indicates that HIV/AIDS is moving from
high-risk groups to the general population.

The study said that there were about 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases in China as of
October 2007 — an 8% increase compared with 2006. Researchers focused the
study on China’s Yunnan province, which borders Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam
and has a history of opium and heroin trade. HIV/AIDS cases also have been
concentrated among injection drug users in Yunnan, according to Reuters. The
researchers examined 3.2 million blood samples taken between 1989 and 2006
in Yunnan.

According to the study, about 37.5% of cases in 2006 were transmitted
through heterosexual contact. HIV/AIDS cases among MSM increased from 0.4%
in 2005 to 3.3% in 2007, according to the study. The study showed that women
now comprise 35% of HIV/AIDS cases in Yunnan, compared with 7.1% in 1996.
According to the researchers, the fact that 90% of women living with HIV are
of child-bearing age makes it “likely to translate into more vertical
transmission from mother to child.”

Cases involving IDUs decreased to 40% in 2006 from 100% in 1989. “HIV/AIDS
is spreading beyond the high-risk populations, largely due to increased
transmission through sexual contact,” researcher Zhang Linqi, director of
the AIDS Research Center in Beijing, said, adding, “It implies that HIV/AIDS
is not only a disease that affects high-risk populations but the general
population alike.”

Zhang said that the changing demography of people living with HIV “makes
treatment and vaccine development even more challenging” because there are
different strains of the virus circulating in the region. He added that
prevention strategies that have been proven successful should be increased
(Tan, Reuters, 10/1).

–
Rachel M Jacobson
Program Director
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS
www.iAIDS.org | www.youthaidscoalition.org